Li-San Wang Quoted in CBS Article

“Can the machine invasion help save your brain?” CBS explores this question in an October 27 article about the development of technology as it relates to advances in Alzheimer’s disease. While the amount of genetic data available has increased in recent years, the speed at which it gets sifted through also needs to increase in order to effectively pinpoint detection and risk factors for the disease. The need for machine learning and artificial intelligence is huge, as they can more easily detect patterns across the human genome.

Cloud storage systems have been particularly helpful in this regard, the article notes. Li-San Wang, Principal Investigator for NIAGADS at UPenn, says, “We’re talking about moving hundreds of terabytes of data that would require lots of really big hard drives to hold. Instead of having copies in a lot of different places, you can go to the cloud and run the analysis. That’s where the power comes in, how you integrate all this information.” The article stresses the importance of continued caution when it comes to machine learning and artificial intelligence, but it will be exciting to see where the field will go with the continued use of this technology.